Tuesday, 20 March 2012

Steve Jobs - two things I didn't know

I was given Walter Isaacson’s book on Steve Jobs for Christmas.

It’s a great read: I really enjoyed it.

I think there are the ingredients for a couple of posting in it.

In this first one I just want to focus on the two things I didn’t realise:

1) How obnoxious Steve Jobs was to work with

I couldn’t believe that speech he gave the Lisa team when they were moved to report to him (with his Mac team). Apparently he said: “You're a B team. B players. Too many people here are B or C players, so today we are releasing some of you to have the opportunity to work at our sister companies here in the valley.” I don’t think I would have liked working for him. Not sure I would even have liked him.

2) How much Steve Jobs contributed to Apple

I mentioned in a previous posting that I owned an Apple ][ back in the 70’s. I loved everything about that machine. I also loved the “Apple II Reference Manual” which accompanied the machine. It has tons of information, including Assembler listings for the operating system. This code was written by Steve Wozniak. So he designed the hardware and he wrote the software! A rare combination and wonderful! So I completely understood the value of Steve W to the company, but I had no idea what Steve J contributed. Having read the book I now get it. Although Steve W’s contribution was invaluable in the early years, it seems that Steve J made the greater contribution overall.